A Look at the 7 Most Humiliating Fact Checks Leftists Got in 2021
Those on the left love to use “fact-checkers” to suppress conservative articles with which they do not agree. However, they tend to ignore the untruths told by people who share their views.
Here are seven of the most embarrassing lies Democrats and left-wing media were caught telling in 2021.
1. Border Patrol Agents Were ‘Swinging Whips’ at Immigrants
In September, Vice News ran a story claiming that Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, were using whips to round up illegal immigrants and deter them from entering the country. Other outlets, including the El Paso Times and NBC News, ran with the story as well, and leftist Sawyer Hackett posted a photo supposedly showing the abuse:
Border patrol is mounted on horseback rounding up Haitian refugees with whips.
This is unfathomable cruelty towards people fleeing disaster and political ruin. The administration must stop this. pic.twitter.com/BSjT91NSj0
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 20, 2021
This characterization was completely false. In reality, the Border Patrol agents were “swinging the loose end of their split reins, a part of western riding gear used to guide the horse,” fact-checker Lead Stories noted.
2. Build Back Better Will Cost ‘Zero Dollars’
While attempting to garner support for his Build Back Better agenda in September, President Joe Biden said the plan would cost “zero dollars.”
My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.
Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America.
And it adds zero dollars to the national debt.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 26, 2021
The dubious claim received a rating of two Pinocchios from The Washington Post, which indicates “significant omissions and/or exaggerations,” and the Post said the number of Pinocchios “could grow higher.”
3. Trump Supporters Attempted an ‘Insurrection’ on Jan. 6
This was maybe the most high-profile lie of the year from the left, and nearly every establishment media parroted it. With the word “insurrection,” the left indicated that supporters of then-President Donald Trump coordinated with one another to overthrow the government during the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
In reality, the FBI “found scant evidence” that Trump supporters coordinated to attempt such an attack, and the vast majority of people apprehended that day were “one-off cases,” Reuters reported. According to USA Today, none of those arrested so far has been charged with insurrection.
4. Biden Was Handcuffed by Trump Admin’s Peace Deal in Afghanistan
After his administration’s botched withdrawal in Afghanistan, Biden tried to blame the failure on the Trump administration’s February 2020 peace agreement with the Taliban. The suggestion that Biden’s hands were tied by that deal is a lie.
“The U.S. could have withdrawn from the accord if Afghan peace talks failed,” The Associated Press noted. “They did, but Biden chose to stay in it, although he delayed the complete pullout from May to September.”
5. People Won’t Get COVID-19 If They Are Vaccinated
In a July town hall, Biden attempted to justify his vaccine mandates by saying, “You’re not gonna get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”
This is obviously false as large numbers of vaccinated people have contracted COVID-19 in so-called breakthrough cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency pointed to an October study that found unvaccinated people were at five times greater risk of testing positive for the virus than vaccinated people.
6. There’s No Chance COVID-19 Originated in a Wuhan Lab
In September 2020, PolitiFact published a fact-check against virologist Li-Meng Yan, who said the COVID-19 virus was created by humans in a lab. It said this assertion “runs counter to scientific evidence.”
Over time, the idea that the virus originated in a lab has become much more widely accepted. In May 2021, PolitiFact rescinded the fact check, saying the claim that COVID-19 could not have originated in a lab became “more widely disputed.”
7. Trump Left Biden Without a Vaccination Plan
Many high-level Democrats in the Biden administration said Trump had left them without a distribution plan for vaccines. Vice President Kamala Harris said the Biden administration was “starting from scratch” on a vaccine plan.
In reality, the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed was a driving force in both the development and the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged that fact, saying on Jan. 21, 2021, “We certainly are not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution.”
Honorable Mentions
These false claims didn’t quite make the top seven but are worthy of mentioning to further underline the left’s dishonesty:
- Biden said on June 1 that Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voted with Republicans more often than Democrats. They had actually voted with him 100 percent of the time.
- The Washington Post claimed Sen. Tim Scott did not come from poverty because his great-great-grandfather once owned 900 acres of land.
- Biden falsified support for his jobs plan when he said the last five Federal Reserve leaders were backing him. In fact, only three of them were alive at the time.
- Biden potentially inflated rape statistics by over 225 percent.
- Biden falsely claimed the voter integrity laws in Georgia would reduce voting hours.
- Biden falsely claimed 83 percent of Trump’s tax cuts went to the top 1 percent. In reality, that group received only 20.5 percent of the tax cut in 2018.
- Biden falsely claimed the border crisis that raged during his presidency was just an example of a typical winter immigration surge.
- “View” co-host Joy Behar said antifa was a “fictitious idea.” The far-left group is very real and has wreaked havoc during riots in Portland, Oregon, and other cities.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Trump told his supporters to “invade” the Capitol building. In reality, he told them to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
- Biden said Trump held the Bible upside-down during a speech at the burned St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington. The claim was fully debunked.
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